ABSTRACT
Karen Wohlwend’s talk is based on her research and perspectives into the literate life of technotoddlers. She examines young children’s play with digital technologies in online communities, looking closely to see the discourses that are operating in this space through how children use online tools to interact and mediate the world. In addition, she examines the idea of nexus of practice; we are engaging in social practices when we interact with technology. In this talk, Dr. Wohlwend discusses how century-old discourses converge in modern notions of childhood, making it difficult to justify play in kindergarten while constructing young children as digital prodigies online. These discourses shape our literacy practices in classroom mandates and on YouTube where babies tap through iPhone screens or toddlers browse nursery rhyme videos.
